Japandamonium!!!

John has been talking recently about this thing called the Watson Fellowship, which both his school and mine are eligible for, and it has gotten into my brain a bit. It's a $22,000 grant to go do something interesting in the world at large. They mean 'something interesting' as in interesting to you, not purely an interesting for the world thing, which all in all sounds amazing, and improbable, and amazing. They seem to take all kinds of projects - I wonder if I could get a grant to go study the differences in Japanese and Manchurian and Russian aikido, or to trace the trail of Osensei's travels, or something like that. I rather think that a project like that would have a pretty good chance. Or perhaps to walk pilgrimage trails in Europe or Asia: La Camina del Santiago, Canterbury, etc. Huh.

Would this screw up all kinds of other things, like a life with Robin or a job with David? I hate having to think about this future stuff. Good thing I have so much work to focus on in the present.

Earlier today, my Winamp mp3 player played this arrangement of songs, while on shuffle mode:

Canned Heat, "It Hurts Me Too"
Savoy Brown, "It Hurts Me Too"
Barenaked Ladies, "Psycho Killer"
Talking Heads, "Psycho Killer"
Paul Butterfield, "It Hurts Me Too"

It's coming: the Rise of the Machines. Maybe all those computer viruses that we think are so terrible are actually just nobly combatting the ascendance of Skynet. Ever think o that?

Don't worry, I don't actually like the Barenaked Ladies; it's just an interesting cover. And yes, "It Hurts Me Too" (or "When Things Go Wrong") is a good enough song to have the 9 versions of it that I do. Looking for more too. Each band has a very different approach to the song - my favorite might be Canned Heat live, with Eric Burdon on the vocals, but it really depends on my mood. Plus, it's like 9 minutes long. Right now I can't get the Jack Johnson song "Bubble Toes" out of my head. It's really infectious and great, although I have no idea what "her eyes are as big as her bubbley toes" means" Honestly, what?